Darren Moore: We didn't help ourselves

Darren Moore admitted that Albion were their own worst enemies in a one-sided derby with Birmingham City tonight.

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Darren Moore (AMA)

The Baggies were fortunate to leave St Andrew's with a 1-1 draw after a series of mistakes and poor passes at the back gifted Blues chances that Garry Monk's men failed to put away.

Jota, who gave the hosts the lead after 27 minutes, also had a penalty saved before Matt Phillips's equaliser.

"I just thought most of it was down to our own problems," said Moore. "We gave the ball away needlessly at times.

"That was the most frustrating thing. Our use of the ball wasn't as clean and effective as it has been in recent weeks.

"On another night some of those passes are executed better.

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"Credit to Birmingham City, they played very well. They denied us any momentum in the game.

"It wasn't until the last 10 or 15 minutes that we had a passage of play, when Gareth [Barry] came on and his range of passing unlocked them a bit."

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When Moore was asked why his side struggled to find their own men with the ball, he said: "Whether you put that down to the international break disrupting your rhythm? I don't know.

"We had too many off-key passes that presented ourselves with its own problems.

"When Birmingham capitalised they were very aggressive going forward , but I thought we did well off the ball and we stood resolute. I was pleased with that part of the game.

"I'm also pleased, in a way, because the boys were trying to do what was asked of them."

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Birmingham had a chance to go 2-0 up on the half-hour mark when Kyle Bartley handled in the box, but Sam Johnstone, who has conceded none of the penalties he's faced this season, saved Jota's spot-kick.

"The penalty save was a game-defining moment," said Moore. "It was a fantastic save.

"It gave us a chance to steady ourselves a little bit. He's a fantastic goalkeeper and will only get better.

"It allowed us to go and try and win the game, although we weren't able to."